Time to be an adult?

I read a post on Young and Twenty blog about how “The twenties force you to step back and evaluate where you are in comparison to where you want to be” and it got my brain working overtime on this statement as in my case at 25 it’s very true.

Vice also drew attention to this age of 25 that as you probably know by now I’ve had issues turning. They highlighted that it’s an age where you take the adult route and make wiser choices than you did before and where you make those choices with careful consideration of the outcome.

As we already told you, 25 is a hell of an age. Technically, you’re still young – you’re still an idiot, probably, you still wear skinny jeans, and it’s still acceptable to spend Sundays eating comedown pizza in your bed – but also you are not at all young – (full article on Vice here)

It got me thinking about what has changed now that I’ve reached this age. When you’re 20-23 you think I’m still young, I’m still at uni why do I need to make such adult choices when all I have to worry about is getting up on time for a two hour lecture on ethics for journalists. During these uni years of course towards the end you are worrying about the ‘what next’ but you don’t need to make decisions like:

Is this job right for me?

Am I earning enough money?

Does everything on my CV paint me in a good light, how can I improve it?

Should I take up an evening/online course to learn new skills?

What’s the cheapest place to rent that is still actually liveable?

You then move on to decisions that simply weren’t in your head two years ago:

Do I earn enough to be able to afford a mortgage?

Is a deposit for a house even do-able?

How much can I save in order to move to London and should I factor kids into my life plans yet?

With all these decisions you have to make around this age of 25 you think to yourself shit, I’m an adult..how did that happen!?

More than likely you have something you are saving towards so the carefree you that spent £100’s on festival tickets, gig tickets, going to the cinema and spending your wages in New Look now thinks before whipping out the debit card. This year there will be no festivals and no spending in New Look every weekend but instead a one-off spa break that you got a huge discount on through lastminute.com and a trip to Thorpe Park that again you got ridiculously cheap.

Any talks of holidays are out of the question and any days off just don’t really happen. You look into credit cards to see if you can wipe out your £2k overdraft and £7k graduate loan as the interest you pay scares you, even the word interest was something you used to ignore up until now.

It’s not all bad though as by now you know what you want, you know what you’d like to earn and you have this determination to make things happen. Saving towards something gives a sense of satisfaction each month that you never previously had and although 30 is ever creeping closer you know that by then you’re going to be sorted (fingers crossed).